IIASA News

2017

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) announced today that Israel has become its newest member country. Israel joins 24 other countries whose National Member Organization’s representatives constitute the IIASA Governing Council. More

The latest land cover map of Africa has exceptionally high resolution, picking out features at just 20 m. However, its detail does not reflect its accuracy, which lies at 65%, IIASA researchers have discovered, not as high as many had hoped. More

A new studyconcludes that 16 out of 25 analysed countries and regions are not on track to achieve the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) targets they have set for themselves on greenhouse gas emissions. More

Should policymakers be aiming to increase the number of people that are happy or the average happiness regardless of population size? However we choose to value the wellbeing of future generations, a smaller population could save tens of billions of dollars annually on climate change prevention policies. More

Switching from using fuelwood to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking would provide modest climate benefits, but the extent of these depend on whether the wood is renewably sourced, and if the short-lived emissions from burning wood are taken into account, according to a new analysis focused on India. More

The IIASA-led Arctic Futures Initiative (AFI) has entered into a unique partnership with the Arctic Circle. This alliance combines the expertise of IIASA, a world leader in systems analysis, with the convening power of the Arctic Circle, the largest network of international dialogue and cooperation on the future of the Arctic. More

The executive summary of the UN’s report on population aging, released today, incorporates new measures of aging developed at IIASA—leading to more optimistic projections for aging populations around the world. More

Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture and forestry sectors could lead to increased food prices—but new research identifies strategies that could help mitigate climate change while avoiding steep hikes in food prices. More

FotoQuest GO—a citizen science campaign aimed at collecting observations of land use and land cover across Austria—launches this week. Researchers hope it will bring a leap forward in community-based land-use change monitoring. More

The second annual Southern African Systems Analysis Centre’s Emerging Researchers Program has been launched. It focuses on training young researchers in Southern Africa in systems analysis methods and research skills. More

More targeted efforts are needed from both the public and private insurance sectors in order to encourage people to take action to reduce their risk of flood damage, according to a new study of three European countries. More

IIASA Director General and CEO, Professor Dr. Pavel Kabat, made an official visit to the People’s Republic of China from 2-7 July 2017 to participate in the international symposium "Funding Science and People Cooperation for a Prosperous Belt and Road" which was organized by IIASA National Member Organization the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). More

How can we ensure forest protection and sustainable forest biomass production at the same time? A first-ever global map of certified forest areas, based on a participatory and collaborative mapping approach, contributes to the answer. More

The Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol aims to phase down the consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), chemicals that have strong global warming impacts. IIASA research provides the first analysis of costs and the importance of electricity savings and technological development for keeping implementation costs low. More

A clear priority focus on human capital—health and education—together with maintaining functioning environmental services offer a vision for an achievable and sustainable future, argues Wolfgang Lutz in his PNAS Inaugural Article. More

Human interventions to harness water resources, such as reservoirs, dams, and irrigation measures, have increased water availability for much of the global population, but at the same time, swept water scarcity problems downstream. More

From the air, Bali’s rice terraces look like colorful mosaics, because farmers plant their fields at different times. A new study shows that the resulting fractal patterns actually lead to optimal harvests, without overarching management. More

Emission reduction pledges made by individual countries under the Paris Agreement leave a wide range of possible climate outcomes, according to new research. Without stronger pledges, the study shows, the climate goals may not be possible to achieve. More

Interactions between the 17 Sustainable Development Goals can lead to synergies as well as trade-offs. A new report, with major contributions from IIASA scientists, provides a detailed analysis of four goals and their influence on other targets. More

The discussion at this year’s Vienna Energy Forum served as an important contribution to the debate and review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris climate agreement and their successful implementation, said participants at the event taking place in the capital of Austria. More

Fast action on near-term warming will provide many potential benefits to achieving the global Sustainable Development Goal, according to new research from scientists at IIASA, in the USA and Europe. More

It is with great sadness that IIASA marks the passing of Manfred Strubegger. An outstanding scientist in the Energy Program, he was instrumental in the development of the program’s core modeling framework. More

For China, synthetic natural gas represents a trade-off between reducing air pollution, but increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to new IIASA research conducted in collaboration with scientists in China and the USA. More

In order to have a good chance of meeting the limits set by the Paris Agreement, it will be necessary to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions while preserving carbon sinks, with net emissions peaking in the next ten years, according to a new study. More

IIASA World Population Program Director Wolfgang Lutz has received a new grant from the European Research Council. Lutz is scientific director of the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), and professor of applied statistics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). These institutions are part of the Wittgenstein Center, which Lutz leads. More

Small and medium farms produce more than half of the food globally, and produce the vast majority of food and nutrients in low income countries, according to a new study that maps global nutrient production from farms worldwide. More

The rising use of unsustainable water supplies by international food producers is putting global food and water supplies at risk and could cause basic food prices to skyrocket, suggests a new study from international researchers. More

The Basel III regulatory framework, as planned, will not reduce systemic risk in the financial sector, according to new research. Instead, regulations should aim to increase the resilience of financial networks. More

Climate change will likely have negative impacts on food production in West Africa, but a new study provides insights on how strategic planning by decision makers could ease or exacerbate food security challenges in the region. More

Droughts can travel hundreds to thousands of kilometers from where they started, like a slow-moving hurricane. A new study sheds light on how these droughts evolve in space and time, bringing vital new insight for water managers. More

How climate change will affect future populations will depend to a great extent on people’s capacity to adapt to changing conditions. Such characteristics can be forecast in the long term, using well-established demographic methods, say IIASA researchers. More

The global commodity trade is a complex system where its network structure, which may arise from bilateral and multilateral agreements, affects its growth and resilience. At time of economic shocks, redundancy in this system is vital to the resilience of growth. More

In many developing countries, economic growth and deforestation seem to go hand in hand—but the links are not well understood. In a new study, researchers use an innovative methodology to quantify the relationship. More